Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.

Hello! My wife and I are in the early phases of discussing moving somewhere else. We currently live in the Raleigh, nc area and love it, but are looking for a change of scenery. We absolutely love the mountains, but with me being in software engineering, I would like to be in a populated area with a healthy tech industry. We have not really visited Colorado at all, but from what I have heard, Denver and Colorado Springs both have good tech industries. Not sure if this is possible, but ideally we want a place where we can have our mountain house on a little bit of land that is not too far away from tech jobs. I was looking up the current Denver housing market and it looks like prices have gone up a lot and we would have to live a little further out to get what we want. Would Colorado Springs be a better area? Or is there somewhere in the Denver area worth looking into?

IMO the best tech is Boulder and Denver with COLO SPGS bringing up the rear end with plenty of military tech.

Do spend some time reading in the Boulder and Denver forums; use our search tool to zero in on tech topics.

Boulder is horribly expensive, Denver is getting that way, but there's a lot to pick from.

Plenty of nursing jobs in the region.

__________________
- Please follow our TOS.
- Any Questions about City-Data? See the FAQ list.
- Want some detailed instructions on using the site? See The Guide for plain english explanation.
- Realtors are welcome here but do see our Realtor Advice to avoid infractions.
- Thank you and enjoy City-Data.

Since you've never been to the Front Range, read this blog I put together. It's brief and Denver-centric, but as others have pointed out Denver/Boulder is where most of the tech jobs are. Denver's your best bet. The Springs is a distant second for tech jobs, and Fort Collins/Loveland/Greeley is an even more-distant third.

I've also got an album with a handful of random hiking/walking pics I've taken over the last 4-5 years here.

Denver has several areas with pockets of software engineering jobs, but the big 4 are the US-36 corridor from Louisville into Boulder, Downtown Denver, the Denver Tech Center, and the Federal Center complex in Lakewood. What's your dev background?

How much are you looking to spend for a house? Mountain land is generally prohibitively expensive, and depending on where you and your spouse get jobs the commute could suck. Additionally, I fully expect the cost of insuring foothills/mountain homes to skyrocket in the coming years due to mounting wildfire losses. Do you have kids? Will you need school district recommendations?

Posts like this concern me. They fall under the heading of “I’ve never been there, but heard it’s nice.”
You really should spend at least a little time here. The West is very different than the Carolinas. Weather, food, traffic, lifestyle, scenery. It may be for you or it may not.
I have relatives in the Carolinas and before I ever visited I was told “it’s nice”. Upon visiting I found Charlotte pretty boring, Raleigh didn’t really have a lot of there, there. Chapel Hill was sort of fun, but I really liked Greenville, SC. It seemed to have the vibrancy the others lacked.
My point being, what you hear from others is based on their values and desires, that may not be the same as yours.
Come visit and see things first hand. Then decide if you want to move here.

Since you've never been to the Front Range, read this blog I put together. It's brief and Denver-centric, but as others have pointed out Denver/Boulder is where most of the tech jobs are. Denver's your best bet. The Springs is a distant second for tech jobs, and Fort Collins/Loveland/Greeley is an even more-distant third.

I've also got an album with a handful of random hiking/walking pics I've taken over the last 4-5 years here.

Thanks for the info! Looks like there is a decent number of trees in your pictures. Are those more west? How far west do you have to go to get to more vegetation and higher elevation? Both my wife and I lived in the blue ridge mountains for 4 years while attending college and fell in love. The elevation of that area was around 3,300 ft and got a decent amount of snow. Looks like Denver is around 5,000 ft. One of the things we do love about the blue ridge mountains is the greenery and waterfalls, so would probably want to live in the greener part of the area.

Posts like this concern me. They fall under the heading of ďIíve never been there, but heard itís nice.Ē
You really should spend at least a little time here. The West is very different than the Carolinas. Weather, food, traffic, lifestyle, scenery. It may be for you or it may not.
I have relatives in the Carolinas and before I ever visited I was told ďitís niceĒ. Upon visiting I found Charlotte pretty boring, Raleigh didnít really have a lot of there, there. Chapel Hill was sort of fun, but I really liked Greenville, SC. It seemed to have the vibrancy the others lacked.
My point being, what you hear from others is based on their values and desires, that may not be the same as yours.
Come visit and see things first hand. Then decide if you want to move here.

Throughout my life, I have visited almost every state in the county. I have actually briefly visited Denver. I flew in and drove north to Casper, Wyoming. Spent the night in a hotel in Denver during that trip. I donít really consider this visiting though and would want to make a proper trip. We have had several places on our radar and have been visiting them to get a feel for what we like. We just donít have the time and money to visit every corner of America. For me personally, forums like these give outsiders a good look at the area from real everyday people who may have already done what we are looking to do.

With that said, Denver is on our radar and we do plan to visit before making that decision.

When did you visit Raleigh? I personally agree about Charlotte. I am not a fan. Raleigh is more family oriented. I think itís an awesome place to live, but would not be a place I would visit on vacation. So, I could see how someone just visiting could get that impression.

Throughout my life, I have visited almost every state in the county. I have actually briefly visited Denver. I flew in and drove north to Casper, Wyoming. Spent the night in a hotel in Denver during that trip. I don’t really consider this visiting though and would want to make a proper trip. We have had several places on our radar and have been visiting them to get a feel for what we like. We just don’t have the time and money to visit every corner of America. For me personally, forums like these give outsiders a good look at the area from real everyday people who may have already done what we are looking to do.

With that said, Denver is on our radar and we do plan to visit before making that decision.

When did you visit Raleigh? I personally agree about Charlotte. I am not a fan. Raleigh is more family oriented. I think it’s an awesome place to live, but would not be a place I would visit on vacation. So, I could see how someone just visiting could get that impression.

All my Carolina visits have been over the last ten years or so. The most recent was about a year ago.
I didn't think Raleigh was bad in anyway, just not a place my wife and I would find exciting. The downtown seemed like it needed a few more interesting things to do. The neighborhoods all looked family friendly. My brother in law lived there for years and liked it.

Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.